]FOOTBALL Federation Australia will blame Clive Palmer for Gold Coast United's axing from the A-League when officials tell a consortium attempting to save the club that their efforts have amounted to nothing. [/b]

The bad news will be delivered as early as tomorrow, with FFA no longer interested in having a Gold Coast team in the A-League, preferring to rush in a western Sydney franchise to ensure the competition remains at 10 clubs next season.

FFA propped up Gold Coast until last Sunday's end of the regular season after stripping mining magnate Palmer of United's A-League licence on February 29 for breaching the club participation agreement.

Palmer has vowed to sue FFA for $20 million in damages unless he is handed back United's licence, but this will not stop the sport's national governing body from dumping a second Queensland club in the space of 12 months after discarding North Queensland Fury from the competition in March last year.

"We'll never know what that club (Gold Coast) could have amounted to," an FFA spokesman said. "The club was never given a chance because of the way it was run by him (Palmer).

"It was never our intention to only have one club in Queensland when we added North Queensland and Gold Coast to the competition three years ago."

A consortium headed by Gold Coast mayoral candidate Tom Tate and steered by entrepreneur Geoffrey Schuhkraft say they are still waiting for exact FFA guidelines as to what's required to save the club apart from an unrealistic verbal demand of a guaranteed $5 million in backing by next week.

Schuhkraft said transparency was required and that the consortium needed to be told by FFA if they were wasting their time in trying to keep a Gold Coast team in the A-League.

"I'm sure that the Queensland football community will not entertain or tolerate the thought of the Gold Coast franchise being sacrificed to facilitate another New South Wales franchise being located in western Sydney," Schuhkraft said.

"That would deliver four A-League franchises in NSW and only one in Queensland, despite Queensland being the second largest area of participation in the sport (in Australia).

"Hasn't it always been the desire and plans to spread and grow the sport into a truly national league?"

EVER since mining magnate Clive Palmer had his Football Federation licence torn up, there has been speculation whether or not a western Sydney team could enter the A-league.

Palmer, owner of Gold Coast United, was told his team would not be eligible to compete in Australia's top-tier football league next season â€” opening the door for another team to fill the void.

That team could be based in western Sydney.

Football NSW CEO Eddie Moore said the numbers suggested the team would be a success.

"Sydney's west has a huge football playing and fan base so having a team there would be fantastic for the community," Moore said.

"In 2011, Football NSW had 171,892 players registered and one third were from western Sydney.

"This itself poses huge potential for the game to grow further. From what I understand the area is a huge catchment for players and fans. The surface here is of international class and we have a 20,000 person capacity. A-League numbers can fluctuate but if you get a crowd of under 10,000 here, it is still a great atmosphere. We were involved with the previous bid but we haven't been contacted recently."

In 2009, the FFA granted a licence to the Sydney Rovers to enter the A-League in the 2011-2012 season.

The team was to represent the west of Sydney including Parramatta, Blacktown and Campbelltown. Less than a year later the team folded. Parramatta Stadium was considered one of two possible home venues. Ex-socceroo Charlie Yankos was a partner in the Rovers consortium. He said the region is still capable to host a team.

"It is pretty logical really," he said. "It [western Sydney] has been thought about for a long time. If the FFA approved it, I have no doubt it would be embraced by the community. There are currently only nine teams eligible for the 2012-2013 season.

Frank Lowy told Fox Sports on Tuesday that: "The question with western suburbs is can we field a team for this October?"

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http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/the-fate-of-allianz-and-anz-stadiums-expected-to-be-announced-on-thursday-20171016-gz1wau.html
Finally there is this article which states that Stuart Ayres will ask at State Cabinet meeting on Thursday for 2 billion to reconstruct both Allianz and ANZ stadium. He is determined to push for the reconstruction of Allianz stadium into a 45000 to 47000 seat stadium at a cost of at least 700 million to be given priority ahead of ANZ stadium. This is the option that he has been advocating for, from the beginning. What the Premier and State Cabinet finally decides to do is anyone's guess.

NRL breaks ranks to support ANZ over Allianz Stadium
BRENT READ Senior sports writer
The NRL has broken ranks with its fellow Sydney Moore Park inhabitants only days from a cabinet meeting that is expected to determine whether the NSW government makes Allianz Stadium or ANZ Stadium their priority for redevelopment.
The Australian last week revealed a letter had been drafted on behalf of the Alliance of Moore Park Sports (AMPS) urging NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium at Moore Park with a minimum capacity of 35,000.
However, it is understood that the letter was subsequently revised to also request that Allianz Stadium be made the priority for development once the freshly-minted Parramatta Stadium is complete in early-2019.
The NRL has consistently requested that ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park be next in line and as such, elected not to offer their support to the letter before it was sent to Berejiklian.
AMPS includes all codes and clubs who use Allianz Stadium and the SCG — the Sydney Roosters, Cricket NSW, Sydney FC, the Sydney Swans, the NSW Waratahs, AFL NSW/ACT and the Australian Rugby Union. It is understood all the Allianz Stadium clubs including the Roosters — as well as the ARU — signed the letter.
In its original draft, the letter made no mention of timing and merely asked that Allianz Stadium be knocked down and rebuilt. However, the NRL was left with little choice but to withdraw their support when it was altered to ask that Allianz Stadium be given preference over ANZ Stadium once the time comes to undertake the next stage of the state government’s stadiums strategy,
The state government pledged $1.6 billion to the redevelopment of Sydney stadiums more than a year ago but while Parramatta Stadium has progressed as planned, the futures of Allianz and ANZ Stadiums have become bogged down by lobbying behind the scenes over which of the city’s two major venues should receive the lion’s share of money.
The powerful SCG Trust have been pushing for priority for Allianz Stadium, a decision that would threaten agreements that have already been struck with the NRL over future content.
The NRL, which supplies the vast majority of content to Sydney stadiums, has outlined their position to the NSW government on a number of occasions in recent weeks and months.
Chief executive Todd Greenberg met personally with Berejiklian while he and his Football Federation Australia counterpart David Gallop wrote a letter to the premier late last month urging the state government to honour their commitment to ANZ Stadium.
That letter made it clear that any prior agreements — the NRL has pledged to play grand finals at ANZ Stadium for 20 years after the redevelopment is complete — would be placed in jeopardy if the NSW government changed its original course.
The letter was also signed by the heads of Canterbury, South Sydney, Parramatta, St George Illawarra and Wests Tigers, as well as the A-League’s Western Sydney Wanderers.
Several of those NRL clubs are also waiting to hear whether they receive their share of the $40 million that the state government put aside for Centres of Excellence.
It is understood NSW sports minister Stuart Ayres delayed an announcement on the distribution of that money because he was trying to raise more funds to ensure all the interested clubs received some money.
It is understood Wests Tigers and Manly were the most in danger of missing out on a share of the $40m.
The most critical issue as far as the NRL is concerned is the timeline and spending on Allianz and ANZ Stadiums. The governing body are desperate to dramatically improve the standard of Sydney stadiums as they look to build crowds for the code. ANZ Stadium is a central part of that plan given the ground hosts Souths and Canterbury as their main tenants, as well as the NRL’s marquee matches such as the grand final and State of Origin.
Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra also use the ground on a part-time basis while Parramatta will move back to their own stadium in 2019.
Ayres will front the media with NSW chairman George Peponis and prospective Blues coach Brad Fittler at Olympic Park tomorrow as they lay the foundation stone for the NSW Rugby League Centre of Excellence.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-breaks-ranks-to-support-anz-over-allianz-stadium/news-story/ebf6411e9eecd4b43ae0b960d329fc73
A second revised letter that pushes the position that Allianz should be given priority and start to be redeveloped before ANZ stadium.